Cornerstone Restorations LLC: Where Quality & Craftsmanship Go Hand in Hand

Stonework is not only in Peter Marmorato, Jr.’s blood, it’s in his name. “Marmorato,” quite aptly, means marbled in Italian.

“Stone is literally in my blood,” says Marmorato, owner of Cornerstone Restorations LLC, a Kings Park-based stone restoration and maintenance company.

A fourth generation stone carver in the monument business, Marmorato notes that his great, great grandfather and great grandfather worked in the marble industry in their native Italy.

“My grandfather came over from Italy and started Art Stone and Memorial, a monument company here, which my father and uncle took over and I worked there for a long time,” Marmorato says. “My father bought my uncle out in the early ‘90s and when he passed away in 2017, my sister and I took it over.”

As the market for monuments slowed down significantly, Marmorato gravitated to the stone restoration business, while still maintaining ties to his family business. Prior to going out on his own, he worked for about a decade at another stone restoration company, opening Cornerstone Restorations in 2017.

Cornerstone Restorations does some commercial work on office buildings, lobbies and churches, but their greatest concentration is on interior and exterior residential work in New York, Greenwich, Conn. and south Florida.

“Patience is definitely key because it is very detailed the way we work,” Marmorato says. “To work with stone, in general, you have to be patient when it comes to refinishing, sanding and repairing.”

MAINTENANCE, RESTORATION & REPAIR

Cornerstone Restorations’ work in the Hamptons, which encompasses about 50 percent of their workload, includes kitchen, bathroom and other interior spaces on countertops, backsplashes, vanity tops, floors, walls, shower stalls, benches, and fireplace hearths, surrounds and mantels, as well as exterior facades, driveways, walkways, retaining walls, terraces, balconies, pool decks, coping stones and more.

“We work on all the really wearable surfaces that just get beat up from water, soap, detergents, lotions,  foot traffic and food prep, as well as those exposed to the elements,” Marmorato says.

Whether it’s marble, granite, quartz, quartzite, onyx, limestone, sandstone, bluestone, travertine, terracotta or concrete, Cornerstone Restorations can restore the stone to its optimal beauty. They recently added metalwork into the mix to accommodate a client who manages a landmark building in

New York City in need of both stone and metal maintenance.

“We pretty much restore any natural stone surface,” Marmorato says. “We can glue broken tabletops and countertops. We’re capable of doing almost all finishes ourselves onsite, which no one else is. That’s our big thing, besides the quality of work and the service we give.”

Whatever the finish, be it sandblasted, flamed,  thermal, or bush hammered, Cornerstone Restorations can do the work, whereas other companies often sub out the work on these highly textured finishes.

“We will actually be subbed by competitors to do it,” Marmorato says. “The Hamptons has an overabundant amount of this more precious stone in the homes that require a lot more maintenance.”

CAREFUL, CLEAN & CONVENIENT

Restoring stonework requires site protection and Cornerstone Restorations’ customers benefit from their specialized “wet process” technique, which leaves no dust.

“We are very thorough in protecting floors, cabinets, appliances, fixtures, sinks, glass , lighting and home decor items,” Marmorato says.

“They don’t need to do a $6,000 countertop refinishing in the kitchen and then have a $12,000 cleaning bill after us,” Marmorato says. “When we leave, the space will be cleaner or as clean as when we got there.”

If the client prefers or needs to be at home while they’re working, they’ll work around them.

“We come up with a schedule that works with their schedule to make it as smooth and convenient as possible for them,” he says.

Working year round, Cornerstone Restorations’ exterior work includes annual maintenance: cleaning, sealing, repairing and repointing mortar joints, silicone joints, and expansion joints.

“We will repair cracked pieces of stones or replace them if we don’t think it’s reparable,” Marmorato  says. “And we will do full patio or façade restorations.”

They also do chimney restoration and cleaning, and removal of efflorescence: the white calcium that bleeds out of the masonry, as well as restoration of stone facades.

Most projects range from one day for refinishing kitchen counter tops to up to three weeks for multiple bathrooms, kitchen counters and floors.

“For an exterior job, if it’s just a small terrace or a basic cleaning, it could last one to three days and up to a couple of months, if it’s a full restoration, repointing and replacing pieces,” Marmorato says.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IS JOB #1

Marmorato takes great pride in offering the best possible customer experience.

“All my guys are thoroughly educated and we do a lot of continuing education year round,” he says. “We are certified with all the products we use, directly from the products’ manufacturers.”

Each year, Marmorato sends his staff for custom training at MB Stone Training in North Carolina, the largest stone refinishing training center in the country.

“I rent the school. They go over everything I want the guys to learn for two or three days,” Marmorato says. “And it’s always the latest products and best techniques, with custom training, such as anti-etch coatings or refinishing dark materials. So that helps us significantly with the quality of work, understanding the fundamentals of the processes of what we do. It also helps with company team building, camaraderie and morale.”

Cornerstone Restorations also takes the time to educate customers on the best ways to maintain stone materials and the proper products to use. They are currently procuring their own private label products.

“That’s for your daily and weekly cleaning and it’s safe for all the stone in the house and doesn’t break down the sealers, which is important,” Marmorato says.

For Cornerstone Restorations, no job is too big — or too small.

“We’ll come in for a small service call for a chip repair or a small stain removal that takes half a day. And then we’ll take jobs that last up to two years, such as a big façade restoration on a townhouse,” says Marmorato, noting that they do restoration work on landmark properties in Manhattan.

In the Hamptons, Cornerstone Restorations does a great deal of work around swimming pools: pool decks, coping stones and the paving area around pools.

“We work with landscape designers and landscape architects, as well as interior designers, construction companies, owners’ reps, management companies, direct with homeowners and house and estate managers,” says Marmorato, adding, “We’re highly qualified with all aspects of what we do. There are a lot of companies trying to do what we do, but it winds up being a mistake. We really try to give an excellent customer experience: We take pride in that.”

Cornerstone Restorations LLC is located at 35 Meadow Road West, Kings Park;  631-747-1250; cornerstonerestorations.com

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